Working Together to Care for Earth

Tag Archives: events

Here we are at the outset of another new year. We are excited about the year to come and look forward to growth for GPEI. The kind of growth that brings excitement is the growth that involves increased participation from those who believe in our mission. Growth of an organization is much like the growth of a tree, it requires basic tending and patterns of new growth are influenced by the current conditions and amount of sustenance received. As the board of GPEI we see our role as that of those who tend this organization and we attempt to provide the attention necessary to allow for new growth. We see those who participate in the organization as the sustenance necessary for growth. That sustenance comes in the form of participation spiritually, physically and financially. The conditions the organization faces include continuing to create a strong on-line presence as this continues to be a primary form of communication of ideas within our society. Gatherings continue, but attendance demonstrates more people searching for alternative means of connection.

We are planning to bring you even more in the way of useful and engaging workshops and gatherings in the coming year. We will continue to hold our Holotropic Breathworktm and writing workshops on a regular basis as well as offering means of exploring our dreams and learning more about permaculture. We are hopeful that you will join us in celebrating Earth Day with some dynamic speakers and activities. The board of GPEI welcomes your suggestions for future events and speakers. We ask that you go to our website, join us on facebook and leave us a comment below with your suggestions, thoughts and ideas.

The following are suggestions for inspiration, reflection and understanding:

Looking for a good book to read?

Consider the Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer. Promoters of the book have the following to say about it:

“What would it be like to be free from limitations and soar beyond your boundaries? What can you do each day to find this kind of inner peace and freedom? The Untethered Soul offers a simple, profoundly intuitive answer to these questions. Whether this is your first exploration of inner space or you’ve devoted your life to the inward journey, this book will transform your relationship with yourself and the world around you.”

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Considering doing some gardening this spring?

Check out the website foodisfreeproject.org and think about sharing with your neighbors. This website promotes earth friendly methods of organic gardening that promote involvement in your own neighborhood. Below is an excerpt from the Food is Free Project information:

‘The gardens are built and offered for free using salvaged resources that would otherwise be headed to the landfill. By using drought-tolerant, wicking bed gardens, these low maintenance gardens only need to be watered every 2-4 weeks. This simple tool introduces people to a very easy method of growing organic food with very little work. A wide variety of vegetables along the block promote neighbors to interact and connect, strengthening our communities while empowering them to grow their own food.’

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Neflix documentaries worth watching per TheGoodHuman.com

No Impact Man: The Documentary A Fifth Avenue family goes green when writer Colin Beavan leads his wife, Michelle Conlin, and their baby daughter on a yearlong crusade to generate no trash and otherwise make no net impact on the environment.

The Garden Filmmaker Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s politically charged, Oscar-nominated documentary follows a group of low-income families struggling to protect a 14-acre urban farm in the middle of South Central Los Angeles from bureaucratic real estate developers.

Tapped The high cost – to both the environment and our health – of bottled water is the subject of this documentary that enlists activists, environmentalists, community leaders and others to expose the dark side of the bottled water industry.

The Last Mountain This gripping documentary follows ordinary citizens in West Virginia’s Coal River Valley as they wage a campaign to prevent the infamous Massey Energy Company from expanding ruinous mountaintop removal mining operations in their community.

Waiting For Superman Dynamic documentarian Davis Guggenheim weaves together stories about students, families, educators and reformers to shed light on the failing public school system and its consequences for the future of the United States.

Vanishing of the Bees This documentary details the economic, political and ecological consequences of a dwindling world honeybee population. It’s a phenomenon with a name – Colony Collapse Disorder – but no explanation or solution exists.

Big River As a follow-up to their 2007 documentary King Corn, friends Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney want to discover what impact the acre of corn they grew in Iowa has had on the Mississippi River. Hopping into a canoe, the boys head downriver to find out. As they travel toward the Gulf of Mexico, they talk to scientists, farmers, fishermen and regular folks about how fertilizers and pesticides have transformed this vital waterway’s delicate ecosystem.

Blue Gold: World Water Wars As water becomes an increasingly precious commodity, corrupt governments, corporations and even private investors are scrambling to control it…which leaves everyday citizens fighting for a substance they need to survive.

Fuel With America so dependent on oil, filmmaker Joshua Tickell sets out to prove that biodiesel, made from vegetable oil, is a viable alternative. Although politicians and energy execs have done their best to quell it, the benefits of biodiesel are real.

A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash In this straight-from-the-headlines documentary, award-winning filmmakers Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack examine the world’s dependency on oil and the impending chaos that’s sure to follow when the resource finally runs dry.

The Future of Food By examining the effects of biotechnology on the nation’s smallest farmers, the film reveals the unappetizing truth about genetically modified foods: You could unknowingly be serving them for dinner.

Carbon Nation Bypassing politics and fingerpointing, this forward-thinking documentary zeroes in on enterprising individuals — from a wind farmer to a solar-panel retrofitter — who are devising business-minded ways to avert the looming climate crisis.

Colony Colony collapse disorder is the subject of this environmental documentary. As bee colonies around the United States disappear, scientists and beekeepers struggle to find the reason why and ascertain the impact on humans and the planet.

Flow: For the Love of Water From both local and global perspectives, this documentary examines the harsh realities behind the mounting water crisis. Learn how politics, pollution and human rights are intertwined in this important issue that affects every being on Earth.

King Corn Friends Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis move back to America’s Corn Belt to plant an acre of the nation’s most-grown and most-subsidized grain and follow their crop into the U.S. food supply. What they learn about genetically modified seeds, powerful herbicides and the realities of modern farming calls into question government subsidies, the fast-food lifestyle and the quality of what we eat.

Dirt! The Movie Dirt takes center stage in this entertaining yet poignant documentary from Bill Benenson and Gene Rosow, which unearths our cosmic connection to soil and explores how diverse groups of people are uniting to save the natural resource.

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price Filmmaker Robert Greenwald takes aim at the corporate giant that’s come to symbolize big business in America — Wal-Mart — blasting the box-store Goliath for allegedly paying substandard wages, skimping on employee benefits and gutting communities.

Plastic Planet This documentary examines the ways in which plastic saturates our modern lives, and how our dependency on this petroleum product harms ourselves and our planet. See how plastic’s toxic chemicals enter the food chain and other disturbing secrets.

Escape from Suburbia After condemning America’s oil dependency in his 2004 documentary The End of Suburbia, filmmaker Gregory Greene here addresses the solutions that will avert catastrophe, outlining the issues actively moving the energy crisis from theory to reality. Spurred to action by the realities of peak oil, Greene focuses his camera on individuals across the country brave enough to challenge and instigate their communities into serious change.